Blasphemy law is an anachronism
NO one expects the Spanish Inquisition - but if Minister Dermot Ahern has his way, don't rule out a return to such good old fashioned methods of crime and punishment as the ducking stool and being burnt alive at the stake.
The earth may no longer be flat but the heads of our Ministers clearly are, judging by the recent proposal to introduce a blasphemy law into the Irish constitution that will catapult us back to the Dark Ages.
The UK finally abolished its own blasphemy law as part of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. It almost seems like an act of parochial defiance against our former masters for the State to now grant so much de facto power to the Church, not to mention the outright hypocrisy of criminalising blasphemy when only last year Ireland became one of several EU states to vote against a Egyptian motion to make defamation of religion a crime.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Michael Martin explained that Ireland had rejected such a proposal because "We believe the concept of defamation of religion is not consistent with the promotion and protection of human rights".
How has the Government managed in just twelve months to drag our national identity down from being a paragon of progressive democracy to a backward island embroiled in yet another unholy mess?
Let us be clear here: every citizen of these shores has the inviolate right to practice their religion free from persecution or state interference, and any personal attack on an individual or group based on their religious affiliation should be a crime punishable by law.
But such rights guaranteeing freedom of religious belief already exist; our freedom of speech laws rightly preclude any incitement to hatred or violence; and our libel and defamation laws are in place to adjudicate on ad hoc attacks.
All a blasphemy law will achieve is to make inequality part of the Irish constitution, conferring as it does special rights on anyone who is a member of an official religion, while discriminating against the quarter of a million atheists currently residing on this island.
Of course, this issue is not built along some polarised divide between the faithful and the faithless, as 21st century multiculturalism guarantees that religion in Ireland is no longer one homogenous, papal entity.
Indeed, far from providing a safe ground for all faiths to flourish, this stifling law may well succeed in fortifying the different religions and entrenching hardline beliefs, as over sensitivity and fear replace open discussion and robust debate in the public forum.
And in the interests of plurality, is it merely the Christian God who is being sheltered from criticism or will all deities find sanctuary under this anachronism?
Lest we forget, thanks to a recent census survey the laser-sword wielding Jedi from the Star Wars movies are now an official religion in the UK: under this new ruling, could a disgruntled Jedi bring to court anyone who dares to rubbish the gospel of The Phantom Menace?
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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